


Corvus Outis

by glitterfics



Category: Dark Angel
Genre: Assassins & Hitmen, First Time, M/M, darkangel_bb
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-09-11
Updated: 2012-09-11
Packaged: 2017-11-14 00:16:15
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 19,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/509295
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/glitterfics/pseuds/glitterfics
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Alec left Seattle after the stand-off at Terminal City to start a new life. Five years later and he's become The Raven; a sought after assasin-for-hire. Life's pretty good until he gets hired for a new job - one which sends him flying back to Seattle to save an old friend and lands him in the middle of a plot against the Transgenics.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Corvus Outis

**Author's Note:**

> This was written for the 2012 [Dark Angel Bigbang.](http://darkangel-bb.livejournal.com/) Contains: sexual content, swearing, violence, allusions to off-screen non-con and a very brief mention of child abuse.  
> All hail my beloved beta [lazydazyjax](http://lazydazyfics.livejournal.com/) who put up with whining, tantrums and general grumpy behaviour while I was writing this. Also [ cassiopeia7](http://cassiopeia7.livejournal.com/) who won my adoration for actually understanding my overly pretentious title and then proceeded to blow my mind with her amazing art. Seriously, go and check her stuff out in full size: **Link to art:** [Art Masterpost](http://cassiopeia7.livejournal.com/241133.html)  
>  Don't own, just play with :D

[ ](http://cassiopeia7.livejournal.com/241133.html)

Taking stock of the beautiful woman sitting at the table of the super expensive, super exclusive DC restaurant Alec gave an internal whistle. Blonde, willowy with pouty lips she was exactly the type of girl that Alec liked to bed. Actually, if he was being honest with himself, he didn’t really have a type, he was happy to take almost anyone to his bed. This woman, though, he’d happily sleep with _more_ than once.

He watched her a little while longer; taking in the tanned legs that went on for miles, the way her dress clung to her body in all the right places and gave a small sigh of regret. Then he smoothly moved his scope to take in her older male companion, lined up his shot and pulled the trigger.

Pandemonium broke out in the restaurant as Senator Romanov fell to the floor, a bullet hole placed perfectly in the centre of his forehead and a pool of blood quickly forming beneath him. The blonde woman, her pretty dress now splattered in red, began screaming and others joined in, diving underneath tables in case they were the next victim.

On the roof of a building two streets away, Alec quickly and calmly dismantled his rifle, placing it into a deliberately tattered backpack. Then he headed to the stairwell leaving behind no trace that anyone was ever on that roof.

[ ](http://cassiopeia7.livejournal.com/241133.html)

By the time the sirens of the sector cops and ambulances could be heard, Alec was hidden among the throng of people on the street. Just another ordinary citizen struggling to get through another day.

He spent the rest of the evening nursing a watered down scotch in a dingy bar. He kept one eye on the TV which was locked behind a wire screen in the corner and was showing constant news reports on the death of the senator. The rest of Alec’s attention was on the other inhabitants of the bar who were hypothesising on who would commit such a shocking crime and he had to suppress a chuckle as their theories got wilder and wilder. By the time that Alec had to leave, the elderly woman in the corner was telling the kid bussing the tables that she thought Senator Romanov had uncovered an alien conspiracy and been killed to keep it quiet. He was almost tempted to stay and hear how much better it would get but he had an appointment to keep.

He made his way to the opposite side of the city, using rooftops to avoid going through the checkpoints. Reaching the abandoned industrial estate, he surveyed the waiting car and surrounding empty buildings to ensure there were no unwanted surprises and then approached.

As soon as he walked into the light from the car’s headlights the driver’s door opened and Sarah Romanov, wife of the late senator climbed out. She was dressed in an understated black dress befitting her role as the grieving widow, but her expression was less mournful and more self satisfied. And why wouldn’t it be? She’d just inherited a whole lot of money which was far better than getting tossed aside for her husband’s willowy blonde mistress. Alec thought that the senator really should’ve been more careful when it came to hiding the affair and he certainly shouldn’t have discussed his plans to leave Sarah over the phone while she was still in the house.

“My friend was right, you really are good at your job,” Sarah told him. “Well worth the fee.”

“I’m glad you think so,” Alec replied coolly.

Sarah reached into the car and removed a holdall, throwing it to land on the floor between them. “There’s the second half of your payment. I assure you that it’s all there.”

Alec nodded. He believed her, there was nothing like having an assassin know where you live to ensure that you didn’t screw them over.

Sarah waited a few more moments but when she realised that Alec wasn’t going to say anything else she climbed back into the car.

“Goodbye, Mr Raven, and thank you,” She said before closing the door and driving away into the night.

Alec waited until she was out of view before picking up the holdall and giving a smile at its weight; his job definitely paid well and he actually got to put those skills that Manticore gave him to good use. Although Alec guessed that it would depend on someone’s definition of ‘good’. He was pretty sure that Max would kick his ass if she knew what he was doing...then again, maybe she wouldn’t. She had always refused to carry a gun but Alec had noticed that she had no qualms against setting her opponents up to be killed by someone else. 

It didn’t matter, it had been a long time since he’d seen Max or any of the friends he’d made in Seattle; five years, in fact, despite the city becoming the Transgenic Mecca. He still sent Joshua a Christmas card every year; always the tackiest one he could find and, although they were always sent from a different place and signed in a different name, he knew Dogboy would be able to smell that they were from him.

The next day found Alec dressed in a slightly rumpled suit with an ID proclaiming him to be Thomas West; an overworked lawyer’s aide headed back to California after being sent on a research trip by his boss. The ID didn’t actually say the last part; that was just the story Alec gave Mindy the very accommodating air stewardess who slipped him an extra drink with a sultry smile before giving him an extra something else in the airplane bathroom. 

Alec really did love the fact that he could afford to travel by plane these days.

“Jesus Christ! You just got laid again didn’t you?” Lara took one look at Alec’s face from where she was leaning against a wall finishing a smoke and shook her head.

“I can’t help it, it’s my natural magnetism,” he told her as he followed her into the small tattoo shop underneath his apartment. 

When he’d first got to San Francisco years earlier, his barcode had been spotted before he’d even had a chance to find a place to rest up after all that travelling. Seattle may have become a lot more tolerant towards Transgenics but that attitude didn’t extend to the rest of the country and so Alec had found himself surrounded by a large mob. He’d managed to fight them off long enough to escape but he’d been broken and bleeding by the time he broke into ‘Rat-a-tat Tatts’ to use their laser. That had been why Lara had been able to sneak up on him with a baseball bat from her home in the back of the shop. 

Luckily for him, she’d dropped the bat when she’d seen the state of him and, instead of calling the cops, she cleaned up his wounds then used the laser on him herself so that she could get him to a doctor. After that, she’d sort of adopted him and let him rent the upstairs apartment claiming that having a Transgenic in the building was cheaper than buying a guard dog. 

“How was LA, man? Meet anyone famous?” Han, Lara’s assistant, called from where he was inking a flaming skull onto the scrawniest man Alec had ever seen.

“Oh yeah, it was all cocktails and wall to wall actresses,” Alec replied with a smirk while the other man chuckled.

As far as Lara and Han knew, Alec worked for a long haul trucking company which explained the sporadic disappearances and the fact that he didn’t seem to work normal hours.

“I wouldn’t put it past you.” Lara rolled her eyes and Alec laughed as he made his way to the stairs.

Lara and Han weren’t quite the family he’d found after leaving Manticore but they were good friends and they stopped him from feeling the loneliness that had hit him when he’d left Seattle.

The first thing he did when he entered his apartment was pull away some of the ceiling tiles in his bedroom to grab his lockbox and rebuilt laptop from the space above. He placed a portion of the money he’d earned in DC into the lockbox; the rest would be split up between several bank accounts. He then booted up the laptop and carefully deleted all the files he’d accumulated on Senator Romanov. 

He knew that Sarah Romanov believed that he had taken the job purely for the money, and he couldn’t deny that the fee had been very attractive, but Alec had actually researched the man before accepting it and discovered that he wasn’t the People’s Champion that he’d seemed. In fact, the senator had some very dark skeletons in his closet and Alec had been more than happy to put a stop to his activities.

Alec had killed innocents in the past and it didn’t matter that he’d been brainwashed into it, he refused to be that guy anymore. He may still be a killer but at least he got some say in it now, at least he could make sure that the people he killed deserved it. 

He spent the next week or so bumming around his area of the city, hanging out in the shop and, on a couple of evenings, sharing the bottle of good tequila that he’d procured in _‘LA’_ with Lara and Han. It was always fun to get those two drunk; Han would sketch out ridiculous tattoo designs, trying to talk Alec into getting them and Lara would spend a couple of hours living out her dreams of becoming a rock star by singing, very badly, into her hairbrush. Inevitably, Lara and Han would end up having loud sex in one of the tattoo chairs and then, the next day, Lara would blame Alec and shoot him glares all day while Han gave him high fives whenever Lara’s back was turned.

He also checked the daily classified ads of The New York Times, the only national paper to survive The Pulse. This was how his wannabe clients got in touch. They placed an ad in the ‘Pets for sale’ section, laid out in code, which detailed the name of the intended victim, the offered fee and a phone number to get in touch with the client. Each ad meant for him was headed with _**‘For sale: one bird, colour black’**_ which Alec had chosen to stop any mix-up with an actual ad (because who in their right mind would pay for a regular old black bird?). This had led to the nickname he’d been given in underground circles: The Raven.

Alec had laughed for about an hour straight when he found out about it and liked it so much that he’d immediately begun introducing himself to the clients as Mr Raven. It was less obvious than Monty Cora; he _had_ learned something since those days.

As well as making it impossible to trace Alec, having clients contact him in this manner allowed Alec time to research the intended victim. If they fit with his ‘not an innocent’ criteria then he would call the number on his scrambled cell phone and arrange a meeting in the city where the job was to take place to discuss how they wanted the job done. Not everyone wanted the deaths as public as Sarah Romanov had.

It was a system that worked well for him. No one knew his real name or where he lived which meant that his friends weren’t in danger and that he could live a normal life between jobs.

Early on the Friday after he got back from DC, he was in his room scanning the classifieds and sat up straighter when he spotted the black bird for sale, ready to start some new research. Then his stomach dropped when he read the rest of the ad. He read it again, slower, but the coded words didn’t change. 

“Oh, fuck me!” he swore out loud.

He didn’t need to do any research on this hit; Alec already knew exactly who Logan Cale was.

After the shock had worn off, Alec sat for a moment and thought things through. He had to take the job; if he didn’t then the client would find someone else to do it. So the best plan would be for Alec to go to Seattle, meet the client and find out why they wanted Logan dead. Then he would take out them and anyone else connected to it instead of Logan. After he’d done that he’d warn Max on his way back out of town so that she could keep an eye on the situation and he’d be home in a few days. Easy.

Of course, the fact that the job would be in Seattle meant that the client may recognise Alec but that was a bridge he’d cross when he came to it.

Mind made up, he called the number on the ad. As expected the client wanted to meet in Seattle and so they arranged a time and place for the next day. Alec didn’t recognise the voice on the phone but that didn’t mean much so he made sure to pick a place where he’d be able to observe the client before they saw him.

He packed a suitcase with all the essentials he’d need and then he headed downstairs to Lara’s apartment.

“I’m going to be away for a few days. Can you water my plants?” 

Lara rolled her eyes knowing full well that Alec didn’t have any plants. “Where you off to this time? Anywhere exciting?”

Alec opened his mouth to tell her a lie about hauling light bulbs to Las Vegas or something like that but instead he told her the truth, “Seattle.”

Lara looked at him in shock. “You’re going back?”

He shrugged. “There’s something I need to do there.”

She studied his face thoughtfully and then nodded. “I’ll be here when you get back…if you need to talk.”

He’d never told her the reasons why he’d left Seattle but he knew that she assumed it was something really bad to make him leave the only place Transgenics were accepted. Sometimes he felt guilty about letting her believe that, but other times, like this, he appreciated the silent support she gave him. He really was kind of nervous about going back there.

A short drive to the airport, a bit of flirting with the guy at the check-in desk so that he didn’t study Greg Solomon’s ID too closely and Alec was back on a plane again. This time he didn’t bother catching the stewardess’ eye; he wasn’t really in the mood. 

He checked into some dive hotel in Sector 3 and then decided to take a walk and familiarise himself with the city again. He let the same old smells and noise wash over him as he walked through the street markets. Glancing up Alec realised that it was still weird to be in Seattle and not see the Space Needle. There was a gaping hole in the skyline where it had once stood. He idly wondered where Max went to think her deep thoughts these days; the roof of Logan’s old apartment building maybe; that was pretty high up. 

“Holy shit! Alec?”

Alec stifled a groan as he heard the voice behind him. You’d think in a city the size of Seattle that he’d be able to avoid meeting anyone he knew for a few days but he’d only been here a couple of hours and he’d already been spotted.

He turned around and found himself with an armful of Sketchy.

“Where the hell have you been, man?” Sketchy practically yelled as he hugged Alec and thumped his back. 

Alec couldn’t help but chuckle at the enthusiastic display of bro-hood. “Here and there, you know me.”

“And you don’t call? You don’t write? You leave Normal heartbroken and pining…” Sketchy finally pulled away and grinned at him.

Alec mock shuddered. “You still see Normal? I figured you’d avoid Jam Pony like the plague now you’re a high flying journalist.”

“I’d miss the entertainment value. Those bips are much funnier when they’re not directed at you and I swear steam comes out of his ears when I just hang around there for no reason.” Sketchy laughed. “Besides the ladies need their daily dose of the Sketchman. Gotta keep Max and O…shit!” He looked at his watch. “I’m late, she’s gonna kill me!”

Alec blinked at him. “Who is?”

“OC! She’s cooking me dinner…something about fool men who can’t feed themselves…” He did a passable impression of Original Cindy. “Hey, you should come!”

“Ah, no. I’ll pass…look Sketch, I’m not here for long…” Alec tried but Sketchy interrupted him.

“What? Then you _have_ to come! We need to catch up, man! And OC won’t mind, we’ve all missed you.”

“No, Sketchy. You can’t tell them I’m here,” Alec said but Sketchy just looked at him uncomprehendingly. “I’m just passing through, there’s no need for anyone to know.”

“But _I_ know,” Sketchy pointed out reasonably. “And if I know then OC will know because she’s got those girl super-powers that let her read your mind. And if OC knows then Max will…”

Alec rubbed his forehead as Sketchy kept talking. He was right, Sketchy never could keep his mouth shut so it’ll be a matter of hours before everyone knew that Alec was back in town.

“Alright!” Alec cut Sketchy off around the time that ‘Mrs Crawford would know’. Alec didn’t even have a clue who Mrs Crawford was.

Maybe dinner wouldn’t be so bad; in fact it would probably be fun to catch up with the Jam Pony gang again. Plus it would give him a chance to talk to Max about the contract on Logan. He just had to figure out a way to explain how he knew about it without letting her know about his day job.

He followed Sketchy to his car and the other man kept up a stream of conversation throughout the journey; mainly who was sleeping with who (Alec almost choked on thin air when he heard about Mole and Syl). He was having such a good time, hanging out with his old friend and catching up on the gossip that, for once, Alec didn’t pay any attention to where they were going until Sketchy pulled up outside the house.

“Max and OC moved into Joshua’s place?” Alec asked in surprise.

“No, Max is in TC. OC moved in here about a year ago,” Sketchy told him. “No rent, big basement that she could convert into her own place…she really lucked out. Plus she likes the fact that Eyes Only is her room mate, if you ask me it makes her feel important.”

“Logan’s still living here.” It wasn’t a question because with the way his luck was going today, of course he’d end up at the home of the one person he really didn’t want to see. 

Sketchy nodded then walked into the house as if he lived there himself. “Men have arrived!”

“Calvin Simon Theodore, you were supposed to be here…” Original Cindy trailed off as she left the kitchen and spotted Alec, freezing where she stood.

“Miss me?” Alec waggled his eyebrows at her.

She unfroze at that, marched across the hallway and punched him in the arm as hard as she could before pulling him into a tight hug. 

“I’ll take that as a yes.” Alec winced; for such a tiny Ordinary she could hit really hard.

“You’ll take that as a ‘what the hell were you thinking?’” She replied, letting go of him and crossing her arms across her chest. 

“What he’s always thinking about…his own skin.” Alec turned to look at Logan standing in the doorway to the library, looking back at him with suppressed anger and some other emotion that Alec couldn’t place. “He ran away when the going got tough.”

Alec smirked at him. “Actually, if you’ll recall, I stayed for the tough part. I didn’t jet until things got better, or as I like to call it, _boring_.”

OC huffed at the pair of them. “Sketchy, help me in the kitchen. You two, get this out of your systems now because Original Cindy doesn’t put up with squabbling over the dinner table.”

Sketchy opened his mouth to complain but OC shut him up with a single look and then dragged him out of the hallway.

Logan threw Alec a glare as he walked passed him into the dining room where he began to set an extra place at the table before OC started yelling. Alec noted that he was wearing the exo-skeleton again; it looked like the effects of Joshua’s blood had finally faded.

“You know, I really thought you’d changed after everything we went through. I guess I was wrong.” Logan said conversationally.

Alec dropped into one of the chairs and slouched down, knowing that it would irritate the other man. “Jesus, it’s not like I left in the middle of the night. I told Max days beforehand.”

“But neither of you told anyone else.” Logan banged the cutlery down onto the table. “Damn it, we needed you here!”

“No, you didn’t,” Alec said softly and Logan looked at him in surprise.

“Terminal City…”

“…was going to be fine. The team that Max put in place were great, I knew that they’d knock TC into shape,” Alec told him. “There was no one chasing us anymore, public opinion turned after what White and the Familiars did, the blockade came down. The rest was…politics; never really my strong point.”

It was true and the righteous anger drained out of Logan as he slumped into the chair opposite, looking at Alec in confusion as if he wanted to stay mad at him but didn’t really have a good reason why.

OC and Sketchy appeared with some large bowls of pasta and everyone quickly dug in. Logan stayed mostly quiet throughout the dinner, still giving Alec those puzzled looks occasionally, but the rest of them covered for that. OC told stories about Jam Pony and some of Normal’s antics over the past few years, Sketchy described the articles he’d been writing recently and Alec regaled them with tales of his ‘life on the road’ which were so outlandish that everyone knew he was making them up – but that just added to the fun.

“I have to say, I’d never have imagined you two as roommates,” Alec commented to OC and Logan once everyone had finished eating.

“Well, I couldn’t really afford to keep the old place once Max moved out and Logan said this place was too big for just him anyway so I decided to give him some Original Cindy flavour in his life.” OC nudged Logan’s arm with her own and he gave her a look of fond exasperation.

“The flavour I can live with, it’s the constant meddling in my love life that I could do without,” he told her dryly.

OC snorted. “Boy, your love life needs meddling. You haven’t been on a date since well before Max and Zack hooked up and that’s a long time to be relying on your right hand.”

“Whoa, wait; _that’s_ going to need explaining. Cyberboy’s back?” Alec stared at them incredulously.

“His memories started coming back a few years ago and so he came looking for Max,” Logan told him.

Alec rolled his eyes. “Of course he did. So he and Max...?”

Logan nodded. “They’ve been a couple for about two years now.”

Alec studied him, he seemed surprisingly calm. Where was all the angst that typically defined Logan and Max?

“And you’re fine with that?” Alec asked, “Shouldn’t you be all ‘woe is me’?”

Logan smiled ruefully. “You’ve been gone a long time, Alec. You missed that part.”

“And thank your lucky stars that you did,” OC told him. “They drove me crazy with pining and the guilt. It was like living in an old British movie.”

[ ](http://cassiopeia7.livejournal.com/241133.html)

Sketchy had been deep in thought while this conversation went on around him but now he looked at Logan and said, “You know who you should date?”

Alec sniggered as Logan dropped his head to the table with a groan.

“That new barmaid from Crash,” Sketchy continued undeterred. “She’s hot and I think she’s got a thing for the bookish type. She couldn’t take her eyes off me when I was writing in there the other day.”

Logan lifted his head. “The red head who paints those glittery hearts on her face?” When Sketchy nodded eagerly he chuckled. “I don’t think I’m her type. OC brought her home two weeks ago.”

“What? You mean she’s..?” Sketchy gaped at the smug look on OC’s face then he turned back to Logan. “Did you at least get to watch? Because that would be _awesome!_ ”

OC leaned across the table and smacked him upside the head as Alec and Logan burst out laughing. “Just for that, you get to wash up!”

Sketchy shrugged as if to say that it had been worth it and then began gathering the plates from the table.

They stayed for another couple of hours before OC kicked Alec and Sketchy out ‘because a girl’s gotta get her beauty sleep’. Sketchy offered Alec a ride back into town but Alec waved him off, he wanted to scope out the area and see what had changed just in case someone else did come after Logan. He ended up circling back to, what would always for him be, Joshua’s house and stood watching the small light burning in the library for a while before coming to a decision and sneaking back into the house.

As he’d guessed, Logan was in the room hunched over a load of files on the desk next to his ancient computer. Alec managed to walk in and take a seat in Joshua’s old armchair without Logan noticing so when he spoke Logan jumped so high he almost fell out of the wheelchair.

“So, you want to tell me what you’ve been up to that’s put a price on your head?”

Logan put a hand to his chest as if that could stop his speeding heartbeat and glared at Alec until the words actually registered and then he just looked confused. “What?”

“There’s a price on your head, Logan,” Alec repeated. “A contract on your life. Why?”

Logan paled. “There’s a..? Are you sure?”

“I’m sure.” Alec nodded soberly. “And before you ask, it’s not important how I know. I just need you to tell me what you’ve been doing.”

Swallowing hard, Logan looked at the files in front of him. Alec didn’t think he was going to answer but then, “I think that some of the X-series have been going missing.”

“You think? You don’t know?” Alec asked.

“They left TC of their own accord. Just turned around and said that they wanted to move on,” Logan told him while Alec stared at him in confusion. “It’s been…about twelve of them spread out over the past five years and I think that something’s happened to them. So I began looking into it.”

Alec tilted his head. “Why do you think something’s wrong? They could have just wanted to start new lives; TC isn’t for everyone.”

Slumping back into the chair, Logan gave a sigh that told Alec he’d heard this before; probably more than once. “It doesn’t add up, Alec. Ramone was in the middle of building a training course that he’d designed, Swan had just worked up the courage to ask Faith out on a date, Hula was learning medicine in the infirmary…they’d made plans for the future. It didn’t make sense for them to up and leave just like that. And now I think the fact that, in looking for them, I’ve upset someone enough to get _a hit put on me_ means that I’m right.”

Alec couldn’t argue with that last part. “Okay, show me what you’ve dug up so far.”

Logan looked at Alec for a moment as if searching for something and then nodded to himself. He pulled a file from the bottom of the pile. 

“I made a note of the dates each of them left and crosschecked them with the train and bus stations, car rental, even the airport; there’s no mention of any of their names. There’s also no reports of any breach to the city barriers, no reports of stolen vehicles that weren’t later found within the city limits…I don’t think they left Seattle,” Logan told him.

“There are other ways they could’ve left,” Alec pointed out, “Hitchhiking, sneaking onto a cargo train…hell, they’re Transgenics, they could jump over the fence at some points.”

“All of them?” Logan broke in, “There was no one chasing them, there was no need to hide who they were or be in that much of a rush to leave that they’d hop the barriers and _walk_ to the next town. At least one of them should have shown up on a bus.”

Logan did have a point but he had to have more to go on than that. 

“What else?” Alec asked.

“They had all visited Burton clinic within the month before they left.” Logan pulled a pamphlet for the clinic out of the folder and handed it to Alec.

A brief perusal showed Alec that it was one of the clinics that had started to make Tryptophan available to the Transgenics who needed it; namely the X-series and some of the psychics. 

“So you think this clinic has something to do with them leaving?”

Logan nodded and pushed some more papers at Alec.

“Look… Burton Clinic is a pretty small operation, just five doctors and their nurses. The clinic tends to focus on giving aid to people who can’t otherwise afford it,” Logan told him. “In order to achieve this they receive funding. Some of it comes from large drugs corporations, in return for testing new drugs on those too poor and desperate to say no. The rest is donations from smaller companies. Those ones don’t typically have anything to do with medicine; they want to add a touch of the _humanitarian_ to their portfolios. But I looked into them anyway and discovered that one of them, ‘Fahrenheit’, is actually owned by another company called Northern Star which has Teresa O’Connell on its board.”

Alec frowned; he recognised that name but…

“She’s the widow of Burt O’Connell,” Logan supplied and suddenly Alec remembered.

Burt O’Connell had been a bit of a religious nut with some standing in Seattle who had railed against Transgenics after White had blown up the Space Needle. He’d decried their newfound acceptance by the city, calling them abominations against God. He hadn’t exactly been the only one at the time but he’d stood out, firstly for his wife (Alec recalled a discussion over a poker game in TC where they came up with increasingly lurid reasons why a woman half his age and far too gorgeous to be with a man that toad-like in appearance would stay with O’Connell). Secondly, he was remembered for his death because it turned out that O’Connell actually had ties to the Mob and had pissed them off once too often, which came back to bite him in the ass or, in this case, shoot him in the head.

“Huh,” Alec said eloquently. “So, why would the Widow O’Connell allow a company she’s involved with donate money to a clinic openly advertising help to Transgenics?”

“Exactly!” Logan had that indignant yet excited look he always got when he was caught up in some Eyes Only mission. “Then twelve Transgenics act out of character and disappear after visiting the same clinic.”

Alec nodded, he thought that Logan was onto something. “What does Max say about this?”

“I haven’t actually told her yet. I was waiting until I had something more concrete.” Logan rubbed the back of his neck sheepishly when Alec raised an eyebrow at him. “Things have been a little...awkward lately.”

“Because of her and Zack,” Alec guessed.

“No...well, sort of. Dix finally figured out a cure for virus a few months back. He’d apparently been working on it in his spare time for fun.” Logan chuckled humourlessly. “So me and Max can actually touch now. It’s...um...”

Alec exhaled loudly. “Yeah, okay...I can see why that would be awkward.”

“You’ve no idea.” Logan gave him a crooked smile. “Zack glares at me every time he sees me and gets all tense like he’s going to have to tackle me away from her and Max…I think she just doesn’t know what to say to me so she runs in the other direction.”

“And you?” Alec had to ask.

Logan shrugged. “I don’t know. I’ve already done the whole being mad at her for giving up on us thing; I moved on a while ago.”

“Okay, _that’s_ something I never thought I’d hear you say.” Alec blinked at him.

“And this is a conversation I never thought I’d be having with _you_ ,” Logan retorted.

Alec smirked. “I think it’s because you missed me.”

“Like a toothache,” Logan muttered but the quirk of his lips took the sting out of it.

Alec studied him, liking the way that Logan seemed to have mellowed over the years he’d been gone. Logan had always had a wicked streak that Alec appreciated but it had appeared far too rarely, taking Alec by surprise when Logan’s eyes would suddenly sparkle with mischief before teasing Joshua or kicking an unsuspecting Mole’s ass at poker. He’d smiled a lot more that evening than Alec remembered him doing before he’d left; it seemed that living with the unstoppable force of nature that was Original Cindy had been good for him.

“Where are you staying?” Logan asked. “I’m guessing it’s not TC.”

“Nah, I haven’t been there yet. Didn’t really get the chance; I ran into Sketchy almost as soon as I got here.” Alec chuckled, not mentioning that he’d actually had no intention of visiting Terminal City up until he’d seen Logan’s research.

“Well the spare room’s made up,” Logan told him. “We keep it that way in case anyone decides to crash here for the night; usually Joshua or Sketchy. You’re welcome to use it.”

That was a pretty good idea, Alec decided. The more time he spent here, the better able he was to keep Logan safe. He just needed to go to the meeting with his client tomorrow, find out exactly who it was, and then he could formulate a plan of action.

“Okay and we’ll go show all this to Max tomorrow afternoon; see if my presence can’t make things even more awkward.” He grinned and Logan laughed.

Alec woke the next morning not long after dawn. He silently checked on the other two occupants of the house before slipping out and heading back to his hotel. After a quick shower and changing into a suit, he grabbed a few items that he may need and left for his very early morning meeting.

He arrived at the closed off shingle beach early so that he could check out the area before the client arrived and then he placed himself in a shadowed section, all the better to observe the client before they realised he was there.

He heard the engine of a car arriving and then a heavily muscled man in a very expensive suit walked into view. This was obviously not the client but some sort of bodyguard acting as a go-between; which would make things a little more difficult. On the plus side, it was someone that Alec had never seen before so it wasn’t likely that the man would know who Alec was either.

Alec stayed where he was, watching the guy carefully and memorising his features, until the man started to fidget and check his wristwatch repeatedly. Then Alec stepped out from his hiding spot and approached.

“Mr Raven?” the man asked and Alec nodded.

“Where’s your boss? I don’t like dealing with middle men.” 

The man narrowed his eyes at Alec. “My boss won’t be meeting with you. There are reputations to maintain, you should understand that.”

“What I _understand_ ,” Alec countered calmly, “is that unless I deal with my client directly there is a lot of room for error. Mistakes can be made too easily and I will not take the blame for that. I’m a professional, Mr..?”

“You can call me Mr Jones,” The man told him and Alec had to suppress an eye roll at the unoriginality. “I can assure you that whatever I tell you is exactly what my boss requires. Logan Cale is to be taken out and you’re going to make it look like an accident; we don’t want any reprisals from his…associates.”

Jones handed Alec a binder. “Everything you need is in there.”

Alec made a show of perusing the contents; photographs of Logan, lists of places that he tended to frequent and people he spent time with. There was even a batch of photos of Original Cindy which really made Alec’s blood boil. 

“If you want to make it look like an accident then that’s going to take time,” Alec told him.

“You’ve got two weeks.” Jones laughed when Alec gave him an unimpressed look. “If you’re as good as your reputation has led us to believe then that should be no problem, Mr Raven.”

Alec forced a smirk onto his face at the compliment in order to ingratiate himself with the man; it wasn’t something that he normally did, preferring to unnerve clients, but this guy had information that Alec needed.

“So what the hell did this guy do anyway?” he asked. “It’s a lot of trouble to go to for a cripple who, from the look of this file, is just a run-of-the-mill shmoe.”

Jones gave him a corresponding smirk. “Don’t let the way he looks fool you. He’s got friends watching his back and he likes sticking his nose where it doesn’t belong.”

Well that was a decent indicator that whatever was going on at Burton Clinic had led to this, Alec thought, then had to stop himself from flinching at Jones’ next words.

“And imagine the boost to your reputation when you can add Eyes Only to your ‘terminated’ list.”

They knew Logan was Eyes Only. This was not good.

Alec deliberately widened his eyes, glanced down at the file then back up at Jones. “Bullshit!”

Jones chuckled. “Like I said, don’t let the looks fool you.”

“Well, that just made this job a whole hell of a lot more interesting.” Alec grinned.

Jones picked up the briefcase at his feet. “I thought you might like that. Here’s half the payment, you get the other half when the job’s done. Just call the same number as before and we’ll set up the second meeting.”

Alec took the briefcase from him. “I think it’s going to be a pleasure working with you, Mr Jones.”

The two men shook hands and then each turned to leave in the direction they’d come from. Alec kept up an unhurried pace until Jones was out of sight and then blurred down an alternative path to the abandoned ground that served as a parking lot. He breathed a sigh of relief when the solitary car parked there was empty; Jones had come alone.

He flicked a glance towards the entrance Jones was going to approach from, quickly picked the lock on the car’s trunk and climbed in. Barely a minute later, his ears picked up the sound of approaching footsteps in the gravel.

During the journey Alec used his training to track where Jones was headed. They paused at and got waved through three sector checkpoints before driving towards, what Alec knew was, one of the wealthy high rise areas. He felt the car drive down a ramp of some kind and park up. 

Waiting until he heard Jones exit the car and leave the area, Alec slowly opened the trunk to reveal a darkened underground parking area. He quickly followed the path he’d heard Jones take until he arrived at an elevator. Alec smiled; the building was obviously well maintained which meant that not only did the elevators work but so did the panel above it and, right now, that panel was displaying exactly which number floor Jones had gone to. Some people just made his job too easy.

Alec moved to the adjacent stairwell and ran to the 14th floor. He peeked down the corridor and spotted a guy standing guard outside what looked to be the only office in use this early in the morning. 

Bingo.

Alec needed to know what was going on inside that room and so glanced around for something he could use as a distraction to get rid of the henchman. He couldn’t immediately see anything useful but, looking up, he discovered a wide pipe that ran along the high ceiling; there was just enough room for Alec to squeeze between the top of the pipe and the ceiling tiles.

With another glance around the corner to check that the henchman still wasn’t looking his way, Alec stowed his briefcase behind the fire extinguisher then jumped towards the pipe. He grasped onto it easily and swung himself up before silently moving forward until he was crouched directly above the man, his head tilted so that he could pick up the conversation from behind the door.

_“…keep you waiting. I trust your meeting went well?”_ A cultured woman’s voice asked.

_“He was a bit pissed off by the time restraint but got over it as soon as he realised just who his target is.”_ That was Jones, Alec recognised.

There was a tinkling laugh before the woman spoke again. _“I told you, Penn, you just need to appeal to the ego of people like that. They don’t really care about the money but they can never resist a high profile job.”_

Alec took note of Jones’ real name as he heard the guy chuckle. _“I liked him. I think we’re going to be pleased with his work.”_

_“That’s why I picked him; we need Cale gone before the next shipment. He’s getting too close to our operation and the last thing we need is one of those hacks of his,”_ the woman said.

_“We’ve got a plan B in place in case we need it,”_ Jones, no, Penn said, _“Don’t worry, Mrs O’Connell, Cale’s not going to be a problem for much longer.”_

A smile spread across Alec’s face; now he knew for certain who had hired him.

The conversation in the room moved onto some party that O’Connell needed security for and Alec thought it was probably a good time to make his way back to the stairwell before he pushed his luck with his precarious hiding place.

He retrieved the briefcase and snuck back out of the building he now knew belonged to Northern Star. He made a quick stop at his hotel room to change into more casual clothes, switched the money into a backpack and made his way to Joshua’s house once more.

Logan and OC were up and eating breakfast when Alec got there.

“Help yourself,” Logan said sarcastically as Alec immediately loaded up a plate with pancakes.

“Thanks.” Alec grinned at him. “Got any syrup?”

OC passed him the bottle without a word and, when Alec looked at her strangely, Logan said, “She hasn’t had enough coffee yet.”

“So all we needed to do to shut her up was confiscate the caffeine?” Alec asked and ducked her hand as it came whizzing towards him. “Hey, all I’m saying is that Normal would pay big bucks for _that_ information.”

They all settled into a companionable silence as they ate and Alec waited until Original Cindy had left for work, with a stern warning for the men to play nice, before he pulled Penn’s binder out of his backpack.

“You’re in more trouble than we thought,” he told Logan, sliding the binder across the table towards him. “The guys trying to kill you know that you’re Eyes Only. On the plus side, it’s definitely O’Connell that’s behind the contract on you.”

Logan looked through the file, the colour draining from his face when he saw just how much information they had on him and the fact that Original Cindy had also been put under surveillance.

“How did you get this?” Logan looked at Alec in confusion then, when Alec stayed silent and didn’t give some cocky answer about busting heads, a spark of understanding appeared in his eyes. “What have you been doing since you left Seattle?”

Alec avoided that question by placing the backpack on the table, it hadn’t been closed so some money spilled out. “That should cover getting you and OC out of town; at least until this has blown over.”

“Alec…”

“We’ll take everything you’ve found out to Max. Once she’s sees what’s there she’s going to want to get involved so you’re going to let me and her take this over, let us deal with O’Connell and Burton Clinic while you and OC go to ground,” Alec continued.

“Alec…”

“And then when it’s all over and it’s safe here again, you can come back…”

“Alec!” Logan banged his hand on the table, overturning OC’s abandoned cup of coffee. “Answer the damn question! What have you been doing?”

“Lets see, I’ve been reading a lot, learned to knit, been practising my yoga and last week I shot Senator Romanov through the head from two thousand yards away!” Alec yelled back, the anger that had been slowly building since his meeting with Penn finally bubbling over.

“Jesus fucking Christ, Alec,” Logan breathed as he slumped back in his seat, his eyes closed.

Alec abruptly stood and began pacing the kitchen, rubbing his temple. He should never have come here. He should’ve stuck to his original plan; get in, take out whoever wanted Logan dead, and then get out again. He should never have let the nostalgia of seeing Sketchy throw him from that plan and he definitely shouldn’t have returned to the house to talk to Logan the night before.

Logan bloody Cale; the only person who could ever get under Alec’s skin like this. He just hadn’t been able to resist seeing him again after staying away so long.

“Romanov was cheating on his wife and she found out. She didn’t want him to leave her or, I guess I should say, she didn’t want his money to go anywhere…” Alec began quietly, trying to explain.

“So she hired you to make her a wealthy widow instead,” Logan guessed. “This is why you left? After everything we went through you decided that Manticore was right all along? That you wanted to be an indiscriminate killer who doesn’t care who he hurts as long as he gets a pay cheque?”

Alec’s eyes flashed dangerously. “Oh I care, Logan. Sarah Romanov may have wanted revenge on her husband for his taste in younger women but she didn’t know about his taste for younger men. Far too young. That sick fuck deserved to die and I’m glad I was the one to do it.”

Logan blinked at him in shock. “If...if you knew that then why didn’t you tell someone? The police…”

Alec snorted. “Oh come on. You know as well as I do that a man with that much money and power would never have gone to jail. There are too many cops willing to take a bribe, evidence that goes missing, lawyers who’d muddy the waters so much that there’d never have been a conviction. And then he’d have gone right back to destroying those kids lives.”

Looking away from him, Logan’s face was full of confusion again. “He wasn’t the only one though, right? You’ve killed others? I mean, you were offered the con…the job here.”

Heaving a sigh, Alec removed his jacket and sat back down next to Logan. He may as well be comfortable for this conversation, it could take a while.

“Yeah, it is what I do and I’ve made a name for myself too; even if it is a stupid nickname that other people have given me.” Alec tried to give Logan his trademark smirk but didn’t quite pull it off. “The thing about this job is that you can pick and choose which contracts you take and I never take a contract on someone who doesn’t deserve it.”

“Who are you to decide who deserves it?” Logan asked; it wasn't an accusation but more like he genuinely wanted to know.

“Give me some credit, Logan. After Manticore and the Conclave I know evil when I see it. I know what a man like Romanov is capable of.” It was the first time Alec had even come close to admitting some of the things he’d been through before Max brought Manticore down and he saw the acknowledgement of that on Logan’s face. “I do a hell of a lot of research on the person before I make my decision and I’ve turned down as many jobs as I’ve accepted.”

Logan exhaled heavily. “This is a lot to take in, Alec. Killing people for money…that goes against everything I believe.”

“Look at it this way, think of all the lives that would have been saved if someone had got to White before he blew up the Needle,” Alec said and Logan looked at him sharply.

“That’s why you started doing this,” he said as understanding suddenly dawned on his face. “It was your way of trying to make up for what he did!”

Alec didn’t bother to deny it.

184 innocent people had died that day all because of White and his vendetta against the Transgenics. He and his band of freaks had set enough explosives to take down the Space Needle in the middle of a busy work day and it had landed on several offices and a large warehouse which had been converted into apartments by people who couldn’t afford to live anywhere else. Then he had leaked a story to the press stating that a gang of Transgenics had been behind the whole thing, complete with doctored hoverdrone footage.

He hadn’t counted on the fact that the Transgenics wouldn’t be able to stand by and do nothing while other people were hurting. The whole of TC quickly mobilised themselves to the disaster area and used all the various skills they had in order to help rescue people from the rubble; risking their own lives to dig towards the voices only their enhanced hearing could pick up.

He also hadn’t counted on Logan being able to use his few remaining family connections to get access to the real hoverdrone footage. An Eyes Only hack and an exclusive news report by Calvin Theodore ensured that Seattle knew _exactly_ who had been behind the bombing.

Things had got better for the Transgenics after that and the majority of the Seattle citizens moved to stand with the Transgenics rather than oppose their presence. Fearing for their political lives in the face of such overwhelming support, the city council had _generously_ agreed that the Transgenics could continue to live in Terminal City (it actually worked out well for them to have people able to withstand living in an uninhabitable section of the city) and move around Seattle as normal citizens.

But there wasn’t a single Transgenic who wouldn’t have given it all up to have those 184 people alive again.

“We could have stopped it from happening, Logan. We could have killed him that day at Jam Pony; instead we just left him and his little gang there to plot their retaliation,” Alec growled bitterly.

It had haunted him, the thought of how easily he could’ve broken White’s neck while he was all trussed up. It got all mixed with memory of the little girl’s body that he’d pulled from the rubble; she’d still been clutching her teddy bear and it still tore at Alec’s heart.

“You’re not the only one who feels guilty, you know,” Logan said and when Alec looked at him, he could see the sorrow mirrored in Logan’s eyes.

Reaching out, Logan squeezed Alec’s wrist and then left his hand there. Alec soaked up the silent support as they each got lost in their own memories of the bombing for several long moments.

“I’m not running.” Logan eventually broke the silence.

“Logan…”

“No.” Logan stopped Alec’s protest before it started. “We’ll get Original Cindy out of harms way but I’m staying. I’m not going to be forced to leave my home by a bunch of idiots too stupid to realise they’ve hired _one of my friends_ to kill me. I started this and I’m not going to let you and Max do my fighting for me; I’ve earned the right to fight alongside you!”

“Well…it was worth a try,” Alec said as he took in the indignant expression on Logan’s face. “Okay, they gave me two weeks to get this job done but we should move OC as soon as we can.”

He then filled Logan in on everything Penn had told him and what he’d overheard from O’Connell’s office.

“A shipment?” Logan frowned. “I could try and hack the main shipping companies, try and find an exact date and more details…I doubt we’re going to find much though.”

“I’m more concerned with what they’re actually doing at Burton Clinics. If we can find that out then we can stop whatever they’re planning before it reaches the shipment stage,” Alec told him.

He got up to retrieve Logan’s files from the other room, wanting to read through them properly and see if he could pick up on something that Logan had missed. When he walked back into the kitchen Logan was looking at him strangely.

“What?”

“I didn’t see that before.” Logan gestured to Alec’s neck.

Automatically Alec’s hand went to rub the tattoo in memory of the pain it had taken to get it done. It had hurt ten times worse than lasering did but the abstract design perfectly covered his barcode and meant that he no longer had to worry about it growing back if he couldn’t get to a laser. The collar of his shirt had covered the tattoo the night before but now that Alec was just in a t-shirt it was clearly visible.

It had been Lara’s idea and had taken her days to come up with the right design but Alec was happy with the way it turned out; swirls of blue and green interspersed with twisting black lines strategically placed to blend with the black lines of the barcode. The tattoo also continued across his right shoulder to wrap around the top of his arm because, let’s face it, a random tattoo about the size of a barcode, placed where a barcode would be, was kind of obvious.

“I had a nasty welcome in California.” Alec shrugged. “Seemed like a good idea to stop that from happening again.”

Logan blinked at him. “I can’t believe we never thought of that before.”

Alec burst out laughing; he’d had the exact same reaction when Lara suggested it. Logan's eyes crinkled in amusement and the last of the tension melted out of the room.

The two men spent the next few hours pouring over everything Logan had accumulated on both Burton Clinics and Teresa O’Connell. Then they headed to TC in Logan’s car with Alec hunkered down in the back seat. It was far more comfortable than the trunk of Penn’s car so he didn’t complain…much; just enough to get Logan to make that little exasperated noise of his.

Logan had taken the whole paid assassin thing better than Alec had expected but Alec guessed that he was still working it through in his head; trying to reconcile what Alec did with his reasons for doing it. Whatever the reason, Logan didn’t hate him for it which was more than Alec could have hoped for. Now he just had to get through telling Max; he’d really rather not but, now that Logan knew, there was no way around it.

They made the walk from the car park to the main command building without anyone seeming to pay attention to them but it wasn’t actually much of a surprise to find Mole blocking their way onto the fourth floor. Alec swore that Terminal City was the gossipiest place on earth.

“Alec.” Mole nodded at him. “Been a while.”

“Five years.” Alec nodded back.

Mole grunted in acknowledgement. “Staying long?”

“Not really,” Alec replied.

“You here to stir up trouble?” 

Alec grinned. “You know me.”

Mole cracked a smile back. “About time; too damn boring around here if you ask me.”

“She know I’m here yet?” Alec asked.

“Nope, figured I’d let it be a surprise. She’s in her office.” Mole indicated over his shoulder. “Call me when you need me.”

Alec clapped Mole on the shoulder as he walked by, amused by the ‘when’ not ‘if’. He sauntered into Max’s office without knocking, Logan on his heels wearing a badly concealed smile at the familiar disregard for Max’s rules.

Max was on the phone and her head snapped up at their entrance, ready to glare whoever it was to death. Instead her eyes widened in shock as she saw Alec.

“Something’s just come up,” she said into the phone. “You’re going to have to…no, I can’t leave right now…fine, but if I come down there and someone isn’t on fire there’s going to be trouble!”

With that Max slammed the phone down and stood up. 

“You, stay.” She pointed at Alec. “I’ll be back in a few minutes to kick your ass!”

After she’d run out of the room, Alec turned to Logan. “It’s nice to see that she’s mellowed.”

Logan laughed and sat down in one of the chairs. “You always did bring out the easy going side of her.”

“It’s a gift.” Alec spread his arms out.

“Hey, Max, we still need to…Logan, I didn’t know that you were visiting.”

Alec turned to see that Zack had walked into the room and was staring at Logan with narrowed eyes. His gaze shifted to Alec and the colour drained out of his face before he pulled a gun from the small of his back and pointed it directly at Alec.

“Ben…” he breathed and, at that, Alec relaxed the defensive stance he’d automatically fallen into at the sight of the gun.

“No,” he told Zack gently. “I’m not him.”

Zack frowned at him for a moment and then the confused fog lifted. 

“You’re Alec; I remember. You worked at Jam Pony with Max.” When Alec nodded Zack lowered the gun. “Sorry, I just…”

“You’re not the first to make that mistake,” Alec told him. “Don’t worry about it.”

“Well, you found him after all. Nice job,” Zack said to Logan, the complimentary words at odds with his cold voice.

Now it was Alec’s turn to look confused. “What’s he talking about?”

Before Logan could answer Max came barging back into the room. “Five years, Alec! What the hell? You were supposed to stay in touch!”

“I did!” Alec defended himself.

“Christmas cards to Joshua with no information beyond a ridiculous fake name and a ‘use the mistletoe well, big guy’ does not count as staying in touch, Dick Biggly!” Max glared at him while Alec snickered at the name he’d used a few years back.

[ ](http://cassiopeia7.livejournal.com/241133.html)

“Wait. He sent Christmas cards? Why didn’t you tell me that?” Logan looked furious as he asked and, even more confusingly for Alec, Max looked sheepish in the face of it.

“Because you’d have gone looking for a person who didn’t exist in a place he’d already left, no matter what I told you,” Max replied. “You would have been wasting your time and money chasing a ghost.”

Logan looked even angrier at her answer. “You think I care about the money? Better that than thinking…” he broke off and looked away from everyone, breathing hard.

“Okay, I’m really confused,” Alec said into the silence that had descended upon the room.

Zack was the one to explain. “Logan believed that something bad had happened to the Transgenics who left TC to start new lives somewhere else but here you are and you’re obviously okay.” 

Alec stared at Logan. “You thought I was one of them?”

Logan glanced at him but didn’t answer.

“Jesus, Logan.” It hadn’t even occurred to Alec that he would be one of the Transgenics that Logan had become so worried about, no wonder he’d had that little freak out when Alec appeared at his house the night before.

“So, Logan didn’t find you?” Max asked. “You just decided to come back on your own?”

Alec tore his eyes away from Logan with some difficulty and focussed on Max. “I came back because I found out that Logan’s in trouble.”

“What?” Max frowned. “What kind of trouble?”

“I...” was all that Alec managed to get out before Logan talked over him.

“There’s a contract out on me. Alec overheard about it in one of those dive bars he likes hanging out at.” 

For the second time in as many minutes Alec found himself staring at Logan in shock; Logan was lying for him – he was lying to _Max_ for him. 

“He took the job this morning to find out more information about what’s going on,” Logan continued.

“And to stop someone else taking it; don’t forget that important point.” Alec rallied himself enough to play along with Logan’s story but his mind was still reeling.

“Okay...” Max rubbed her forehead and perched on the edge of her desk. “Let’s start at the beginning. Why the hell is someone trying to kill Logan?”

“Beyond the obvious?” Zack muttered, too low for Logan to hear but Alec and Max both glared at him over Logan’s head as Logan bent to retrieve his research from his bag.

Max caught Alec’s glare and tilted her head consideringly but Alec waved her off.

Logan spread his notes and documents out on Max’s desk and told her and Zack everything that he’d shown Alec and also everything that Alec had learned that morning.

When he finished Max looked devastated. “So, they really are in trouble.”

“You couldn’t have known, Maxxie,” Alec told her from where he stood leaning against the office wall. 

“I _should_ have; Logan did,” She threw back at him. “Jesus, Crystal’s been gone for over four years; they could have done anything to her.”

Zack crossed the room and put his arms around her. “We’ll get them back, Max, I promise.”

Max leaned into him, drawing his comfort for a moment, then straightened and was all business again. “You’re damn right we will. Alec? You up for a little breaking and entering?”

“You know I am.” Alec grinned at her.

“Okay, where can we send Original Cindy? We obviously can’t use Logan’s cabin, there’s too great a risk of O’Connell knowing about it.” Max looked thoughtful. “Would any of your contacts be able to put her up for couple of weeks?”

Logan shook his head. “I don’t want to risk that either. If she knows that I’m Eyes Only, she could know who my informants are.”

“I’ve got somewhere,” Alec said, “I just need to make a phone call first.”

Max nodded at him. “Zack, you’ll have to tail O’Connell. You’re the only one of us that she definitely won’t recognise.”

“I can do that,” Zack agreed before turning to Alec. “Can you sketch this Penn guy for me? I’ll keep an eye on him too.”

All of the X5s and X6s had the training to make ID sketches, useful if a camera wasn’t available on a mission, but it hadn’t become standard practice until well after the ‘09ers had left so Zack must have learnt about it from one of the other Transgenics. Alec would put his money on Jazz; it had always been her favourite class.

“Got any paper?” Alec asked then sat down to work on it while they hatched out a plan of action.

Zack left as soon as Alec handed him the finished sketch then Max and Logan went to get Joshua, they’d agreed that he’d be the best person to collect OC from Jam Pony and take her home to pack some essentials for her impromptu trip.

Alone, Alec pulled out his cell phone and dialled the familiar number.

“Hello?” Lara’s voice came through the line.

“Hey, Angel.” Alec used the nickname he’d given her after their unusual first meeting. “How are my plants doing?”

“Alec! Is everything okay?” She sounded concerned, probably because he never normally he never called her from one of his trips away.

He smiled despite himself. “I’m fine but I do need a favour…”

Everything in him said that this was a bad idea but he wasn’t going to risk Original Cindy’s safety just because he didn’t want people to know where he lived. He could always move but if he allowed one of the first true friends he’d made after Manticore get hurt then he’d never forgive himself.

“I have a friend who needs to lie low for a while so I’m sending her your way,” Alec told her. “I’ll give her the key to my place but I’d appreciate it if you could keep an eye on her.”

“Of course. How much trouble is she in?” Lara asked although Alec could hear the unspoken _‘is she a Transgenic too?’_ that she would never say over a phone.

“I don’t know, to be honest. We’re probably just being over cautious but keep that baseball bat of yours handy just in case. I’m sure you’ll get along with her fine; she’s probably got more in common with you than she does with me.” Alec knew that Lara would pick up that OC wasn’t a Transgenic from that. “I’ll tell her to head straight for the shop so that you can show her up to the apartment. Her name’s Original Cindy.”

“Interesting name,” Lara replied just as Logan came back into the office.

Alec chuckled. “It suits her; you’ll understand when you meet her.”

“I’m sure I will and _you_ understand that I’ll be pumping her for all sorts of embarrassing stories about you, right?” Alec could practically hear the smirk on Lara’s face.

“I have no embarrassing stories,” Alec informed her archly, ignoring Logan’s snort of amusement. 

“If you say so.” Lara laughed but sobered up to say, “Stay safe, Alec.”

“I will and thanks, Angel.”

Alec had barely hung up the phone when he was suddenly picked up and was getting the life squeezed out of him.

"Alec!" Joshua yelled happily.

"Down, boy," Alec wheezed, "Need to breathe."

Joshua let him down but kept his hands on Alec's shoulders and bounced from foot to foot in excitement. 

Alec chuckled, "I missed you too, big guy."

"Alec staying now?" Joshua asked but didn't wait for an answer as he began tugging on Alec's arm. "Stay with Joshua, come on."

"Sorry, Josh. I'm staying with Logan," Alec told him, not mentioning that he was only in town for a short time; there was no need to ruin Joshua's happy mood. Besides, he decided, he'd visit again and hang out with Josh before he left; Alec really had missed him.

Joshua nodded in understanding. "Right, Logan in trouble. Alec look after Logan, Joshua look after Original Cindy."

"Alec and Joshua, saving the day. It's just like old times," Alec said and Joshua gave a delighted bark and slapped Alec on the arm, causing him to stumble slightly.

Nodding to himself, Joshua left the room to do said saving of the day but not without giving Alec a long long while Logan's back was turned. Joshua may come across like an overgrown child but Alec knew better. He also knew that he hadn't actually got anything passed his friend in that brief conversation but he'd deal with that later and instead turned his mind the night ahead.

Three hours later OC was on a plane to San Francisco, despite her protests that she could handle herself, and Alec found himself perched on the edge of one of TC’s rooftops, waiting until it was time for him and Max to leave on their little mission. 

He heard Max approaching so didn’t bother to look up as she took a seat next to him.

“We’ve missed you, you know,” She said, looking out over the little piece of Seattle that they’d made their own.

“I gathered that when Josh swung me around like a ragdoll,” Alec replied wryly.

“Yeah, well…you’ve been gone a long time. I thought you’d come back after a few months,” Max admitted.

Alec smiled. “So did I for a while there.”

“But you must have found something worth staying away. Is it this girl that you’ve sent OC to?” When Alec looked at her Max clarified. “Logan said he heard you talking to her on the phone.”

“Her name's Lara and, no, we’re not together. She’s just a friend that has a soft spot for helping people in trouble,” Alec told her.

Max smirked. “And _you’re not_ a couple? She seems like just your type.”

Alec looked at her sharply and she started to laugh.

“How did I not see it before?” She shook her head. “I actually believed that _I_ was part of the reason that you left, that you got so mad with me and Logan all the time because you’d developed feelings for me or something. But it wasn’t me, was it?”

“You’re right, I admit it…I have the hots for Mole.” Alec grinned at her. “I heard he was with Syl now and have come back to fight for my _‘hunk o burning love’_.”

She gave him a look. “Fine, keep joking but I’ve figured it out and you know it.”

“You think I’m joking but have you seen Mole’s ass?” Alec leered and Max shoved his shoulder.

“Come on.” She climbed to her feet. “We’d better get going but we _are_ going to be talking about this later.”

As she walked away the smile dropped from Alec’s face.

“ _That’s_ a conversation to look forward to,” he muttered as he stood up and followed her.

There were a couple of security guards at Burton Clinic but Max and Alec were able to get in and down one of the corridors without attracting their attention. The alarm system had been far more sophisticated than a place like this should have had, even taking into account the fact that drugs were kept on the premises, causing Alec and Max longer than expected to bypass it. As a result, they got inside smack in the middle of the guards rounds and had to rifle through the filing cabinets of each office quickly in order to stay ahead of them.

“It looks like Dr Pine is self medicating.” Alec tutted lowly as he dug through a desk. “Nothing else here though.”

Max frowned. This was the third office they’d checked and there’d been so sign of anything out of the ordinary besides Dr Pine’s drug habit, Dr Rosa’s kinky drawer and Nurse Dormer’s kitten obsession; seriously, a woman with that many pictures of kittens on her desk needed to get laid as soon as possible in Alec’s opinion.

“Okay, let’s hit the next…” Max trailed off as the sound of footsteps approached. “Shit!”

Alec threw open the door of the built in closet and he and Max jumped in before the guard could spot them.

“Just like old times,” Alec breathed into the back of Max’s neck.

She elbowed him in the stomach but not hard enough to cause him to make any noise. It was, however, hard enough to make him take a step back into the hanging coats and that was when he felt something hard digging into his back. Turning around, he discovered it was a small handle…which meant that the back of the closet was actually another door. 

Clever.

He waited until he heard the guard leave the office to continue on his rounds and then opened the newly discovered door. Pulling the torch from his belt he stepped into the hidden treatment room and closed his eyes as he recognised the only piece of equipment in the room.

“Where the hell did they get that?” Max’s voice contained the same sense of horror that Alec felt as she looked at the chair that she’d been strapped into once upon a time.

“Manticore,” Alec answered. “It can’t have been destroyed in the fire.”

He walked across the room to the computer with the laser attachment. This explained so much. Alec had wondered what Burton Clinics must have had on the missing Transgenics to be able to convince them to leave TC they way they did. But now that he’d seen this machine he knew that it hadn’t been blackmail at all; they just brainwashed the Transgenics into believing that they wanted to leave.

Max stood above the chair no doubt lost in the memories of Renfro beaming that laser into her eye, trying to find out who Eyes Only was…

Alec shook his head as the realisation hit him. “This is how O’Connell knew that Logan was Eyes Only. They must’ve got one of them to admit it while they were under.”

Max nodded. “She’s probably been gathering as much information about us as she can by using this.”

Booting up the computer, Alec copied all the encrypted files onto a couple of flash drives. He then handed them to Max so that she could take them to Dix and his team to crack the encryption code. Hopefully the files would be able to tell them everything the chair had been used for and lead them to the missing Transgenics.

They shut everything down and snuck back out of the clinic without a word. Alec had his own bad memories associated with that damn chair.

They had reached their bikes, parked three blocks away, before Max broke the silence between them.

“Are you coming back to TC?”

Alec shook his head. Logan could only stay there a few hours before the toxicity in the air got to him so he’d returned to his house before Alec and Max had set out. Alec wanted to make sure that he was okay and to let him know what they’d found.

“Alright,” Max said. “I’ll call you when Dix cracks the files.”

She looked so worn down all of a sudden that Alec couldn’t help but step closer to wrap her up in a hug.

“It’ll be okay, Maxxie. We’ll bring them home,” he whispered into her hair.

She nodded against him and then pulled away with a sad smile before riding off.

He pulled up outside Joshua’s house fifteen minutes later. He’d been half tempted to take the bike for a longer ride: it was a beautiful machine and he’d have to thank Krit for letting him borrow it, maybe get some tips on improving his own bike back home. 

The light was burning in the library just as it had been the night before but this time Logan was expecting him. He even had a bottle of scotch and two glasses waiting. 

“Breaking out the good stuff for me? I’m flattered,” Alec quipped as he dropped down into the armchair.

“Don’t really have anyone to drink it with these days; OC prefers those sugary sweet girly drinks.” Logan made a face as he poured their drinks. “So…what did you find?”

Alec took a sip of the scotch before answering, feeling the liquid burn pleasantly going down. “How much has Max told you about those months Manticore had her?”

Logan frowned at the non sequitur but answered anyway. “I don’t know if it was everything but she said that they were trying to break her down into the perfect soldier and, at the end, trying to find out who I was.”

Alec nodded. “And did she tell you _how_ they tried to get her to talk about you? Did she mention the chair?”

“The one with the laser. Yes, she _and_ Zack have mentioned that little torture device,” Logan’s eyes flashed angrily.

“That’s what we found,” Alec told him.

Logan blinked at him and then took a bracing drink from his own glass. “Jesus,” he muttered.

“Yeah.” Alec sighed. “Every time I think that place is dead and buried they come back to hurt us again.”

“And we’ll stop them again,” Logan said determinedly. “We’ll keep doing it every time until they really are gone.”

Alec studied the man that had long ago made their cause his own. “We wouldn’t have known about this time if it wasn’t for you.”

Logan flushed and busied himself with topping up their drinks.

“I’m sorry, Logan,” Alec told him. “Not for the end result but for worrying you. I didn’t know you cared.” He added with a grin, trying to lighten the mood a bit.

He was taken aback when Logan lifted his head and pinned him with a look. There was a maelstrom of emotion in Logan’s eyes that made Alec’s heartbeat increase and that hope, which he’d long since buried, rise up.

“Neither did I,” Logan admitted sounding a bit hoarse.

“And now?” Alec asked quietly.

Logan didn’t answer but neither did he look away. Alec put down his glass and stood, carefully moving towards Logan without breaking eye contact. His heart was in his throat as he leaned down over Logan, placing his hands on either side of the wheelchair. He paused for a moment, his eyes drawn to Logan’s mouth as the other man reflexively wet his lips and then Alec smiled before he closed those remaining inches.

[ ](http://cassiopeia7.livejournal.com/241133.html)

Immediately Logan’s hand came up to cradle Alec’s face as he kissed him back eagerly. He opened his mouth with a groan when Alec licked along the seam of his lips and Alec reeled from the sensations shooting through him from a simple kiss. One of Logan’s hands slid to the back of Alec’s head while his other moved to wrap around Alec’s waist, dragging him closer until Alec was straddling his lap.

“Well,” Alec said breathlessly when he remembered that Logan needed to breathe before he did and pulled back slightly. “I guess that answers that question.”

Logan smiled and rested his forehead against Alec’s. “I guess so.”

“Jesus, Logan. You couldn’t have figured this out five years ago?” Alec shivered as Logan’s hand slipped under his clothes to stroke the skin at the small of his back.

Logan grinned at the reaction he’d evoked. “You saying it would have made you stay?”

“I’m saying it would have given me one less reason to leave,” Alec replied and Logan froze, looking at him in surprise.

Alec stared back long enough that Logan would be able to see the truth of his words and then tilted his head to nuzzle along Logan’s jaw. Then he breathed into his ear, “I guess you’ll just have to make it up to me.”

He smiled as Logan shivered this time and allowed the other man to drag Alec’s mouth back to his. This kiss quickly heated up and Alec shifted forward on Logan’s lap until he brought their hips into alignment, drawing a guttural noise from both men.

“I want you, Logan,” Alec whispered against Logan’s lips. “Wanted you for so long.”

At that, Logan’s hips made a valiant attempt at bucking towards him and he let out a frustrated whine. Alec shushed him and rocked slowly, giving Logan the friction he wanted. Impatiently, Logan pushed at Alec’s shirts then ducked his head to explore the smooth chest that had been revealed with lips and hands. Alec threw his head back moaning appreciatively and causing Logan to chuckle against him, the vibrations adding deliciously to the overwhelming sensations.

Deciding to get his own back, Alec pulled Logan’s shirt off then proceeded to lick and nip his way from Logan’s neck downwards, smoothly lifting off Logan’s lap to kneel on the floor before him.

“Alec…” Logan’s breathing hitched at the sight and he stroked his hand through Alec’s hair.

Alec just gave him that confident smile, his eyes gleaming, as he worked on unbuckling and unzipping Logan’s pants. Pulling him free, Alec took a moment to appreciate the view before diving forward and using every trick in his repertoire to drive Logan crazy.

“Oh, fuck!” Logan panted, the fingers in Alec’s hair tightening to just the right side of painful while his other hand held onto the arm of his chair in a white knuckled grasp.

Alec glanced up through his eyelashes and couldn’t help but groan at the sight of Logan coming undone. That was enough to tip Logan over the edge and he cried out as Alec swallowed everything he had to give.

Alec sat back on his heels and gazed in awe at the thoroughly debauched looking Logan; lips kiss swollen, still partly dressed, his eyes half lidded in pleasure as he tried to catch his breath.

“Get back up here,” Logan managed to get out and Alec eagerly climbed back up into his lap.

As soon as Alec was within distance, Logan dragged him into another passionate kiss. His tongue was chasing the taste of himself in Alec’s mouth while his hands pushed Alec’s pants down to his thighs before taking him in hand.

Alec broke away from the kiss with a gasp and buried his head in Logan’s neck. It didn’t take much, Alec was far too turned on and Logan’s hand too talented for him to hold out. Alec bit down on the juncture of Logan’s neck and shoulder as a wave of intense pleasure crashed over him, shaking with the force of it. 

They stayed where they were, with Alec collapsed against Logan, as both men drifted in a languorous post sex haze. Alec licked apologetically at the reddening skin on Logan’s neck and the other man smiled.

“Worth the wait?” he asked.

“Oh, that was just the warm-up,” Alec promised as he pinned him with a predatory look then he chuckled lowly as certain parts of Logan twitched in response.

Logan groaned. “Well, if you think I’m going another round in this chair you’ve got another thing coming.”

Alec laughed, feeling lighter than he had in a long time. 

The next day they got to TC far later than they’d meant to thanks to the inventive ‘good morning’ blow job that Logan had given him followed by the most enjoyable shower that Alec could remember having (that flip down seat that Logan had installed for himself had a wide variety of uses, they’d discovered). 

Max, Zack, Mole, Syl, Star and Joshua were waiting for them when they finally arrived. Max opened her mouth to yell at them but stopped and blinked, probably at the goofy smiles Alec knew they were both sporting, and then let it go with a twitch of her lips. When Logan took a seat next to Joshua, Alec watched as Joshua frowned and then took a surreptitious sniff of Logan before glancing at Alec. Alec winked at him and Joshua grinned widely, giving Logan a nudge that almost knocked him off his chair and made him look at Joshua in confusion.

“Okay, now that everyone’s here, let’s get started,” Max said as she took a seat behind the desk. “Dix managed to crack the encryption on most of the Burton Clinics files this morning. They show what we’d already expected; that they have been using the equipment they stole from Manticore to gather information from the missing Transgenics. As well as gaining the identity of Eyes Only, they’ve managed to get a full strategic work-up of Terminal City and key information on who they consider to be the main players among us. That list includes me, Zack, Mole, Syl, Dix and Star.”

Mole growled around his ever-present cigar. “They’re planning an attack.”

“I don’t think so,” Zack told them. “Beyond two bodyguards that follow her everywhere, O’Connell doesn’t seem to have any firepower to her name.”

“That we know of,” Mole shot back. “We’ve only been following her for a day.”

Logan shook his head. “I’ve been looking into her for a while actually, since I discovered she was connected to the clinic. Zack’s right, she has no ties to any militant groups and she’s given the mob a wide berth since her husband’s death. Hell, she had to go out of town to hire someone to kill _me_.”

Star flicked her orange hair out of her face and blinked her overlarge eyes. “So, what does she want with all this information. She’s gone to a lot of trouble to get it.”

“I don’t know,” Logan replied. “But if I were to guess? I’d say she either wants to blackmail you or to sell the information to someone else.”

“Which brings us back to a possible attack,” Syl pointed out.

Max nodded. “We’d better prepare for one, just in case.”

The group quickly began organising; arranging for the weapon caches to be moved, delegating larger security teams to man the main gates and outlining the best patrol routes in the city. Alec stood back, no longer able to help with these sorts of plans; he didn’t know the TC layout all that well anymore, too much had changed. 

Syl, Mole, Joshua and Star had just left to get the pieces put in place when Dix came into the office.

“I’ve decrypted the rest of the files,” he told Max calmly but the expression on his face was anything but calm; he looked livid. “I know where they are.”

He handed Max some papers and the blood drained out of her face as she read through them.

Logan frowned. “What is it?”

She wordlessly handed the papers to Logan, Alec crossed the room to read over his shoulder and swore as he took in the report Logan was holding. It was dated for three months after Hula had disappeared and was confirmation that the reconditioning of subject D had been successful. At the bottom of the report was a list of qualities that subject D now possessed, the accumulation of which led to one conclusion; Hula had been brainwashed into becoming a submissive sex doll with a subliminal trigger for deadly force in case her ‘master’ was attacked. 

As Logan flipped through the other pages it became clear that the others had been subjected to the same conditioning in the chair. There were occasional tweaks here and there but the reports, and the statements from Dr. Pine that the subjects were ‘ready for shipping’, painted a pretty clear picture of what had happened to the missing Transgenics.

“You said that you know where they are…” Alec turned to Dix. 

“There is a list of ‘clients’ so we should be able to track them down from that but…” Dix paused, frowning.

“But you don’t know how to break the conditioning,” Logan guessed and Dix nodded with a sigh.

“Zack managed it,” Max pointed out.

“And so did you and Alec,” Dix agreed. “But you all had strong reasons to do it; Zack wanted to save you, you wanted to save Logan and Alec wanted to remember Rachel. Without that powerful emotional response to someone I don’t know how we can pull them out of it…unless we use the chair.”

“No!” Zack’s response was immediate and Alec nodded in agreement. “We’re not putting them through that again. We find another way.”

“I’ll keep working on it but there may be no other way,” Dix told him.

Logan, meanwhile, had picked up on something else. “Alec, didn’t you hear O’Connell say something about a shipment in two weeks?”

“You think they still have Summer there?” Alec asked, referring to the most recent Transgenic to go missing.

“No.” Logan shook his head. “Subject L’s report is dated 6 months ago and that has to be…”

Logan broke off as Zack blurred across the room and grabbed him by the throat.

“Her name is _Summer_ ,” he growled into Logan’s face.

Max moved but Alec reached them first, pulling Zack off Logan and throwing him into the wall.

“Keep your hands off him!” Alec warned, standing between Zack and Logan.

“It’s okay, Alec,” Logan wheezed from behind him. “I could’ve said that better, I just meant that I thought Summer _was_ subject L.”

“Don’t make excuses for him, Logan. It's not just this, he’s been treating you like shit since I got here and it stops now,” Alec replied without taking his eyes off Zack as he climbed to his feet.

“You don’t think I’m just going to stand by while he makes his little puppy eyes at Max, do you?” Zack glared at him. 

“Puppy eyes?” Logan spluttered but both men ignored him; although Alec saw Dix pat him sympathetically on the shoulder from the corner of his eye.

“Well, if you actually paid attention instead of getting caught up in your stupid jealousy, then you’d know that Logan belongs to _me_ not Max,” Alec informed Zack angrily. “So if you touch him again, I _will_ hurt you.”

Zack frowned in confusion, glancing between Alec and Logan. Alec could see the moment when Zack spotted the bruise on Logan’s neck from Alec’s bite the night before. Alec raised an eyebrow at him and Zack nodded to show that he understood.

“Okay, if you’re all done with your pissing contest…” They all turned to see Max glowering at them with her hands on her hips. “We’ve got more important things to be doing.”

“Right.” Logan cleared his throat a bit sheepishly, having been the cause of the problem. “I was trying to say that the date on the report that seems to be about Summer was six months ago so I don’t think she’ll still be at the clinic or wherever O’Connell was keeping them. I think she may be planning on taking someone new.”

“Won’t they need longer than two weeks?” Max asked.

“Not if she’s perfected the technique,” Dix said thoughtfully, he took the papers back from Logan. “Yes look, each of the reports shows a smaller gap between the person leaving and the successful reconditioning.”

Zack looked determined. “So, we stop her from being able to get to any of us this time and then we take her down.”

“I may have an idea on how to do that actually. I think we might be able to set her up,” Logan told them.

Alec frowned. “You want to get her arrested.”

“Not this time.” Logan met his eyes and Alec knew he was remembering their conversation about powerful people and the law. “I was looking into O’Connell’s financials while you were scouting out the clinic and I found something interesting. One of the reasons that Teresa was left alive when her husband was killed was because she had no idea where Bert had squirreled away the money he stole from Capriotti’s gang; any money she had left was from her own family not the O’Connell’s...”

“But she lied.” Alec grinned, seeing where Logan was headed with this.

“Like a rug.” Logan smiled back at him. “Her family actually went bust years ago; that’s why she married O’Connell in the first place. I think certain people would be pretty interested to learn that; they might wonder how she can afford her current lifestyle.”

“Time for a new Eyes Only hack?” Max asked with a smirk.

Logan chuckled. “It has been a while but I think I can pull one together.”

“Then you’re not staying in that house,” Alec said firmly. “They know where you live and a hack is exactly what they don’t want. They’re going to come after you hard.”

“Okay, then you’re in charge of keeping Logan safe,” Max told him. “Help him do the hack and then get him out of the way. We’re going to track down the ‘clients’ addresses so that we can plan how to get our people back. Maybe even have a word with this Dr Pine and see what he knows.”

“I can do that,” Alec agreed. “If you're sure you guys don’t need me here?”

“We’ve coped for years without you, I think we’ll be okay,” Zack said and there was a slight curl to his lips so Alec guessed that was what passed as a joke for Zack.

“I belong to you, huh?” Logan said, his voice amused, as they left the building together.

“I didn’t hear you deny it,” Alec replied with a grin.

Logan laughed but didn’t comment which made Alec’s smile grow even wider.

It took the better part of the day to scout out a new place for Logan to stay; a tiny basement apartment on the other side of the city whose previous residents had vacated for warmer climes the day before. A large payment secured it, no questions asked, and Alec and Logan immediately packed up Logan’s equipment and moved him into his temporary home.

“You’re sure that they won’t be able to trace the hack?” Alec asked as he watched Logan set up the correct programme on his computer, wishing that he’d brought his laptop with its higher security.

“I’m sure,” Logan replied. “Dix upgraded the computer for me and, in any case, the hack won’t be long enough for them to get a lock.”

Alec nodded and settled back in a chair, watching as Logan typed a final few keystrokes and then removed his glasses to start the transmission.

_“This is a streaming freedom video bulletin. The cable hack will last exactly 60 seconds. It cannot be traced, it cannot be stopped and it is the only free voice left in the city. Teresa O’Connell, wealthy widow sitting pretty on the board of Northern Star but where exactly did her wealth come from...?”_

Alec tried to pay attention to the actual words but he’d always enjoyed watching Logan in Eyes Only mode and, besides, he already knew what Logan was going to say. Instead, he let his eyes rake slowly over the other man, the man he had finally managed to make his own. 

Alec didn’t kid himself that he’d left Seattle because of Logan, there had been lots of reasons for his decision, but constantly watching _The Max and Logan Show_ hadn’t helped. In the time between the original TC standoff and the Space Needle bombing, when Max had finally admitted that she’d lied about having a relationship with Alec, he had acted as a sort of go-between for the two of them. As a result he’d ended up spending a lot of time with Logan and the more time they spent together the more he understood what Max saw in the man.

He could say that it was weird that Joshua figured out Alec’s feelings for Logan before he did but Josh had always been able to pick up on what was happening in Alec’s head, right from that first time when all the Rachel stuff backed up on him. Then, once it had been pointed out during a mortifying conversation with Joshua that involved paint and some disturbingly phallic looking daubings which Josh had insisted were actually hearts, it had become increasingly difficult to ignore the sorrowful and longing looks between Logan and Max. It took more and more effort to stop himself from grabbing hold of Logan to show him that he could get what he wanted from Alec and it was only the fact that Alec knew he would be seen as a poor substitute that held him back.

Things were different now though; Logan was obviously over Max, beyond some ‘what could have been’ regrets, and Alec _knew_ that when they’d been together the previous night Logan’s thoughts had been on Alec and Alec alone.

His thoughts came back to the present when he heard Logan’s ‘Peace out’ and he checked his watch. Less than sixty seconds, just as Logan had promised. 

“That should be enough to set Capriotti on her tail,” Logan muttered to himself as he switched off the equipment piece by piece. “It should only be a matter of time. I’ve just given her to him gift wrapped with a bow.”

“You do know that he’s going to kill her. You really okay with that?” Alec asked.

“After what she’s done, what she put Ramone and the others through…” Logan grabbed his glasses from the desk and blinked a few times when he put them on. “You were right, some people deserve it. I may not like thinking that way but the idea of her ‘charming’ her way out of a jail sentence, if we went that route, it just makes my skin crawl. Maybe if we lived in a better world where things weren’t so corrupt…That’s not to say that I’m not going to try and talk you into getting a better ‘job’ though.”

Alec shook his head. “It’s who I am, Logan.”

Logan hummed noncommittally, apparently not willing to have that argument just yet. “So, that’s our work done for the night. What are we going to do with the rest of the time?”

Alec laughed at Logan’s waggling eyebrows. “I think maybe I should give you the full tour of your temporary home. You know, bathroom, kitchen…bedroom…” 

“That’s a lot of rooms,” Logan told him. “Let’s just skip to the last one.”

For the second morning in a row Alec woke wrapped up in Logan. Alec had his arm slung across Logan’s waist and his head buried in Logan’s neck while the other man’s arms held him close. It was still near dawn as Alec’s internal alarm rarely let him sleep any later but he was in no rush to get out of bed and stayed drifting in the cocoon of warmth for a while.

Eventually, his rumbling stomach alerted him to the fact that in all the excitement the day before he and Logan had actually forgotten to bring any food with them. He refrained from letting out a sigh at the thought of going shopping as he realised that he could actually make Logan breakfast as a surprise. He extricated himself from Logan without waking him and left a note before heading out to hunt down enough food to last them a few days.

One of the best things about hitting the street stalls so early in the morning was the little treats that could be found before the general populace got to them. An hour later, Alec was riding high on the punnet of strawberries that he’d managed to haggle from cheery stall owner with a lot of flirting and winking. He couldn’t wait to see Logan’s face when he woke up to pancakes with _real_ strawberries. He was walking to another stall to buy more practical foodstuffs when some hands grabbed him and dragged him into an alley.

Immediately, Alec hit out and was rewarded with an _oof_ as whoever was holding him went down, but there were others to take his place, one of whom had a gun trained at Alec’s head. A split second before the guy pulled the trigger; Alec dodged to one side and then kicked the gun out of the man’s hand, even as he heard the bullet hit the wall where he’d been standing. A third man decided against shooting and swung the butt of his gun at Alec’s temple but Alec grabbed his arm and snapped it with a sickening crunch. He spun to face the next attacker and then fell to his knees as he was instead met with a cattle prod, the likes of which hadn’t been seen since White and his team wielded them.

The cattle prod was shoved into his stomach again and Alec looked up to see Penn’s face before he aimed a kick at Alec’s head.

When Alec came to he found that he was strapped into the dreaded chair but he wasn’t in the clinic, instead he appeared to be in a disused warehouse and, judging from the light coming in through the dirt encrusted windows, it was evening already.

“You’re a lucky man, Mr Raven.” Penn’s voice sounded from somewhere behind him. “Well, I guess that would depend on your definition of ‘lucky’ but I was fully prepared to kill you today until your little display.”

Alec forced himself not to strain against the binds holding him down and kept his voice steady. “I’m guessing that you’re new to this business but you don’t hire an assassin and then kill him before he does the job you’ve hired him for. It’s kind of a waste of money.”

Penn walked into view and gave Alec an amused look. “I do like you, Raven; maybe I won’t wipe your entire personality. After all, I suspect that I have you to thank for the position I find myself in right now.”

“As much as I love claiming credit for things, I have no idea what you’re talking about,” Alec told him.

“After Eyes Only’s transmission last night, I realised that I had a choice. I could either stand by O’Connell, try to protect her from Capriotti and probably die in the process or I could help Capriotti and then get her business as a reward. I chose the latter.” Penn flashed Alec a shark-like grin. “So I decided to kill you to tie up loose ends before going after Cale myself, like O’Connell should have let me do in the first place. Only I managed to discover that you, my friend, are a Transgenic. Irony of ironies, O’Connell somehow managed to hire a Transgenic to cover up the fact that she was kidnapping Transgenics.”

“Yeah, I thought that was pretty funny, myself,” Alec admitted. “So, you kill your boss and think that you can just pick up where she left off? You have to know that the rest of Terminal City knows exactly what’s going on at Burton Clinics by now. You’re not going to be getting your hands on any X-series quite so easily.”

Penn laughed. “Oh, O’Connell’s not dead. She’s paying Capriotti back by being passed around his gang; yet another irony there after all the Transgenics she’s subjected to a lifetime of fucking. And as for your concerns about my business, well it may be more difficult to get to them but it’s not impossible as you’ve proved today.” He patted the laser as he moved it into position above Alec. “I’ll get them, especially when I’ve got a Transgenic actually working for me.”

At that Alec did begin to struggle; he couldn’t help this asshole hurt other Transgenics, he wouldn’t do it. Penn laughed even louder, secure in his knowledge that the straps were strong enough to hold Alec down.

“I’m going to kill you,” Alec promised. 

“No, you won’t,” Penn replied. “You’ll kill _for_ me, you’re too good at your job for me not to keep you as my pet assassin, but you’ll be far too loyal to actually hurt me. Don’t worry, you’ll enjoy every second of it, I made sure that Pine put that in the programme. As I said, I like you, Raven; I want you to have fun while you’re working for me…and under me.”

“Brainwashing the only way you can get someone to screw you?” Alec twisted as far as he could in the bindings, trying to get away from the gag Penn was dangling from one hand.

“Now, now, don’t be nasty,” Penn admonished. “Pretty soon that mouth will be put to better use.”

He grabbed Alec by the hair and yanked his head back painfully far until his mouth opened, then the gag was shoved between his teeth.

“I understand that this process is quite painful and that you’ll need something to bite down on,” Penn continued conversationally. “But I think this is quite a good look for you, maybe we’ll try it out again some time.”

Alec glared but couldn’t do anything to stop Penn from pulling a strap across his head to hold it still and then attach the clamp to keep his eyelids open.

He pulled the laser into position, still chatting to Alec. “Normally Pine would be here for this part but he went into hiding after he made the programme for me; probably scared about what happened to O’Connell but I’ll track him down him later. In the meantime, I’m _pretty sure_ that I remember how to work this however you may want to cross your fingers just in case.”

Penn flicked a switch and a red light shone directly into Alec’s eye. The pain was instant and just as bad as he remembered; Alec’s hands gripped onto the arms of the chair hard enough to make them creak and he let out an agonised groan around the gag. He fought against it with everything he had, concentrating his thoughts on Logan and how he looked as he fell apart under Alec’s hands, but all too soon that blackness rose up and Alec’s mind went blank.

[ ](http://cassiopeia7.livejournal.com/241133.html)

He didn’t know how long he’d been under but Alec awoke to hands stroking his face and someone calling his name. _Logan_. His mind supplied the name to go with the voice and Alec felt a rush of relief that he could remember. He forced his eyes open and could see the concern etched on Logan’s face as the other man hovered over him.

“Logan.” Alec’s voice was a croak, his throat dry and sore.

The concern was replaced by a brilliant smile which made Alec’s chest feel tight.

“God, Alec.” Logan had undone the straps and was running his hands over Alec to check that he was unharmed. “I got your note but when you didn’t come back…”

Alec grabbed the front of Logan’s shirt and pulled him down for a quick, forceful kiss. “I’m okay, I promise.”

Logan took a shaky breath and nodded before helping Alec up and out of the chair. Alec’s knees buckled at first but Logan had a firm hold of his waist and the exo-skeleton held them both up.

“What happened?” Alec asked as he surveyed the warehouse, including Penn laying on the floor and the broken laser equipment.

“I called in the reinforcements.” Logan chuckled. “Max and Zack already had Dr Pine held at TC and were interrogating him on where the others had been sent. Once I phoned them to say that you’d gone missing they asked him about his latest job and he cracked instantly. He babbled all about Penn, the programme he’d requested this morning and where he’d had the chair moved to.”

“Then we came here to save your sorry ass,” Max said as she joined them.

Despite her words Max looked as relieved as Alec felt and her eyes scanned him intently, searching for injuries much the same way as Logan’s hands had earlier.

“Thanks, Maxxie.” Alec’s voice was soft to convey the genuine gratitude he felt.

She grinned. “No problem. You’re pretty useful to keep around.”

Alec huffed in amusement as Zack walked down some steps to the side of them.

“Upstairs is secure; looks like it was just Penn and one other,” he informed them before nodding at Alec. “Glad to see that you’re okay, Alec. We should probably activate the trigger just in case, though.”

“What trigger?” Alec looked at them in confusion.

“It turns out that Pine was greedier than O’Connell and Penn anticipated,” Logan told him. “He put a trigger into the programming that will completely wipe it. He planned on contacting the ‘buyers’ at a later date and threatening to use the trigger unless they gave him more money.”

“So we can undo the conditioning?” Alec asked.

Zack nodded. “We just need to show them a particular picture that Pine has and they’ll be back to normal with no memory of what’s happened.”

“Which is a blessing in itself,” Max added.

Alec agreed, they may end up with a large gap in their memories but it was probably far preferable to remembering what they’d been forced to do.

“I’m guessing you destroyed the machine.” He smiled at Zack who nodded with a small smile of his own.

“This time we _know_ that it’s gone.”

“And Penn?” Alec looked at the man on the floor.

Zack shrugged. “Who’s Penn?”

Alec grinned; maybe he and Zack could get on after all. 

“Alec, you’re hurt,” Max said then, glancing at Logan’s arm still slung about his waist. “Leave this to us and go heal up. We can meet up tomorrow for a full report.”

Alec opened his mouth to protest that he just needed a few minutes but Logan pulled him closer.

“Let me take care of you,” Logan breathed into his ear and Alec’s knees threatened to buckle for an entirely different reason.

Alec nodded dumbly at Logan. He didn’t miss the amused look Max and Zack shared but he was more concerned with getting somewhere private with Logan as soon as possible.

Keeping his hands off Logan during the car ride was possibly one of the most difficult things he'd ever done and, judging from the looks Logan sent his way every few minutes, Logan was having the same problem. As soon as the door shut behind them, Alec shoved Logan up against it and kissed him with everything he was worth.

“Alec…” Logan managed to get out between kisses. “You should be taking it easy.”

“Don’t want to,” Alec replied against Logan’s lips. “Want to feel you…”

Logan groaned and spun them, pushing Alec into the wall. “I thought I’d lost you… when I saw you in that chair...”

Alec nuzzled Logan’s jaw. “I haven’t gone anywhere, I’m fine.”

He found his mark from two days earlier and set about renewing it with sucks and nips; a tangible reminder to Logan that Alec was still there. Logan tangled his hand into Alec’s hair, tilting it back to that he could attack his mouth again.

The arousal pooled in Alec’s groin and suddenly it wasn’t enough, he needed _more_. As if reading Alec’s mind, Logan’s hands grabbed the back of Alec’s thighs and lifted him up; the exoskeleton taking both their weight as Alec instinctively wrapped his legs around Logan’s waist. They both moaned at the change in position and Alec’s head thunked against the wall behind him as he panted and writhed against Logan.

Two sets of hands got tangled as both men desperately fought with buckles as zippers but eventually they managed to get their pants pushed down just enough that they could slide together, skin to skin. The sensations and the wonderful noises that Logan was making against his neck was almost enough to make Alec lose it right there; almost but he needed something different right now and he knew that Logan did too.

“Can you reach the table?” Logan asked in a rough voice and Alec looked at him incredulously for thinking about furniture at a time like this. So Logan clarified. “Top drawer…OC’s hand lotion.”

Alec blinked at him for a moment before realisation set in and he leaned to one side, scrabbling blindly in the drawer of the tiny hall table until his hand shut around a tube shape and emerged triumphant. Logan took the tube from him and it was no time at all until Alec’s eyes fell shut at the delicious burn of Logan’s fingers. His hips bucked as Logan pressed against that one particular spot and Logan chuckled evilly into Alec’s ear as he repeated the gesture over and over until Alec was begging, practically sobbing, for more.

The fingers disappeared and were quickly replaced by the feeling of Logan steadily pushing into him. Alec let out a whine that he would deny ever making and wrapped his arms around Logan’s shoulders, struggling to catch his breath as Logan waited for him to adjust to the fullness. Alec managed to give a shaky nod and Logan began to move, slowly at first but building up to a punishing pace that would’ve had Alec praising whoever had built that exo-skeleton if he had a coherent thought left in his head. 

Logan leaned forward until their foreheads were touching and whispered, “Mine.”

That one word, coming from the man that Alec had wanted for so long, broke him apart. He cried out something that could have been Logan’s name and fell over the edge, hearing Logan’s answering cry as he fell after him. 

A little later when they had finally made it to Logan’s bed they lounged together lazily; Logan propped up against the headboard with Alec leaning back against him. Logan idly traced the swirls of ink on Alec’s neck with his fingers and sometimes his tongue while Alec stroked Logan’s other arm, slung around him possessively.

“Stay,” Logan said softly. "Stay here with me."

Alec wanted to, he really did, but there was still the issue of his job. He couldn’t go back to being a soldier with nothing to fight; a warrior tied up in the bureaucracy of helping run Terminal City while feeling a part of himself wither away. 

“Logan…” he started but Logan interrupted him.

“No, hear me out. We need to get the missing people back and I’m sure that Max is going to set up teams to do that; who better to lead them than you? Someone who’s been out in the world while they stayed here,” Logan pointed out. “Then, when you come back home, we can work together. It’ll be the same thing as you’re doing now; getting the jobs and researching them to find out who‘s genuinely corrupt and deserves to have the hit put on them. Then we’ll come up with a way to deal with it, sometimes it’ll be your way and sometimes it’ll be mine but we’ll figure it out together.”

Alec had melted at the casual way Logan had said ‘home’ and he really wanted that, a home with Logan. He wasn’t totally convinced that Logan’s idea would work, sure that they would be at loggerheads more often than not when it came to who’s method of ‘dealing with it’ they should go with, but he found that he was willing to try it if it meant that he got Logan and they got that home. 

He leaned his head back and caught Logan’s mouth in a gentle kiss. “Okay.”

Logan’s face broke into a blinding smile and Alec was powerless in the face of it. Yeah, he was sure that it wouldn’t all be smooth sailing but he was also pretty sure that it would be worth it.

“You get to tell OC what happened to her hand lotion, though,” he couldn’t help but add and joined in when Logan started laughing.

Make that, definitely worth it.

**FIN**


End file.
